COOL showery weather is providing a soft finish for maturing cereal, pulse and oilseed crops.
Rain has been ideal for crops, particularly in the Wimmera.
Grain markets were softer again last week, continuing the declining trend since last August.
The Australian Stock Exchange futures January contract for Newcastle APW milling wheat declined $3 last week to close at $223/tonne.
In the domestic market, SFW1 wheat eased $5 last week to $215/tonne delivered to Melbourne stockfeed end users.
Demand for dairy-related feed rations remains high. Dairy farmers are active buyers of wheat-based feeds to maintain milk production.
Traders reported US wheat markets tried in vain to rally last week.
Surplus US wheat stocks and a lack of fresh buying interest in corn limit any price rises.
Wheat stocks in Europe are considered healthy.
Further pressure came last week from the Ukraine announcement that it had removed its export taxes for wheat and corn.
This will allow low-cost Ukrainian exporters to sell grain at lower prices than before.
But analysts say low corn stocks will continue to influence the direction of wheat markets for the foreseeable future due to the substitution of the two grains in the feed market.
Big investment houses in the US are speculating wheat prices will fall and are uncharacteristically short on wheat futures and options for this time of year.
Others are saying this high level of short trading could prove positive to the market should a rally in wheat prices develop.
Further support for US wheat prices emerged from the return to dry conditions in wheat-producing regions of the country.
New crop canola prices are $6 lower this week to $542/tonne delivered to the port of Melbourne.
Some promising crops and an eagerness to lock into a price before they fall any further, saw a small number of Victorian growers selling canola last week.
Oilseed markets have been pressured by lack of demand for US soybean, while there has been ideal planting conditions for new crop soybean in both Brazil and Argentina.
Logistics of the grain harvest soon will be a key issue because stocks of grains still remain in many key receival points in Victoria.
While programs to build new bunkers have been under way for some time, growers are expecting to find that silos will quickly fill and close if the predicted big harvest eventuates.
